Archives for November 2016

Heavily tattooed is a subjective term–some people might consider me lightly tattooed. I do have a fair amount of plain skin left. At the same time, I also have about 70 hours of getting tattooed under my belt. So I know a little bit about becoming heavily tattooed, which is an ongoing process for me.

I got my first tattoo on my hip when I was 18, in 1998. Even though I was obsessed with tattoos and worked briefly as a piercing apprentice, it was nine years before I got my next tattoo. That’s because I was in a strict new religious movement for many of those years, and when I wasn’t, I was doing work that required a blank slate, body wise. Things like local modeling, background acting, stripping and promotional work. It was more lucrative for me not to have tattoos, so I held off.

Of course, I had all the usual concerns: Will I regret this? What if people give me shit about the way I look? How will tattoos affect my job opportunities? So I didn’t get tattooed again until I was 27, and that tattoo was a cover-up of the one I got at 18. I didn’t start getting tattooed heavily and often until I was in my early 30s. I think that’s for a few different reasons, but mostly, I realized that I’ve loved and had tattoos for half my life, so I will probably still love and want them in the future. If there were a few things I could tell myself before I got tattooed, this is what I’d say.

Yes, you will regret some of your ink. I don’t love every single one of my tattoos. Some of them, I wish I could go back and change. I don’t regret getting tattoos, but I regret the loss of opportunity that comes with a new tattoo–once you tattoo over plain skin, it’s gone forever. Sometimes, I wish I could start my tattoo collection all over again.

These are my tattoo regrets: My shoulder caps. I wish I had only gotten one rose and left the other shoulder bare so I could start with a blank canvas for a sleeve someday. I sometimes wish my tattoos weren’t in color because I love the look and cohesion a body of grayscale tattoos has. I wish my side piece didn’t extend so far onto my back, because it’s going to look weird when I’m ready to get a backpiece.

The way people treat you in public won’t change that much. In 1998, when I had my septum pierced, I could hardly leave the house without someone asking me if it hurt, staring, or asking rude questions like, “Why do you want to make yourself ugly?” I thought I was in for more of the same if I got public skin, like my arms and legs, tattooed. Lo and behold, the world has changed A LOT in the past 18 years when it comes to body modification. I have never once had someone say something rude about my tattoos or piercings. Weird, huh? It’s generally only compliments. The only downside is, people do use my ink as an excuse to touch me.

You will still be able to hold a good job. I waited years before getting my forearm tattooed because even though I work at an alt-weekly, it’s fairly conservative–for example, our CEO asked me to disguise my gauged ears. Finally, I decided this was my body and I was going to do what I wanted with it. I told HR I was planning on getting arm tattoos, and they just said that was fine, but there might be some situations where I needed to cover them. It was so not a big deal. Now that I’m about to go freelance, my appearance matters even less. In fact, my next tattoo is probably going to be on my hand.

You will feel happy every time you look down at your body and see your ink. For a long time, my biggest tattoos were on my back, torso and hips, hidden by clothes. I thought the fact that I had extensive, hidden tattoos made me a secret badass, unlike those people who flaunted a tiny public piece on their wrist. That’s not true, obviously. Where you have your tattoos boils down to preference and life circumstance–it doesn’t make you more or less of a badass. However, I am so glad I ventured into having tattoos in more public areas, because that means I get to see them as part of my day-to-day life. I think they’re beautiful, and when I see them on me, I feel more beautiful than I did when they weren’t there.

You will create a rich, rewarding relationships with this art form and the tattooers who create it. I love looking at tattoos on other people. I love browsing through artist portfolios. I love seeing tattoos on strangers. I love the creative process of thinking about a tattoo I want for myself, drafting Pinterest boards of inspiration, researching artists whose work fits my vision, and finally, I love getting the tattoo and seeing my body slightly transformed. The whole process has brought such richness and pleasure to my life. I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my days without it.

I don’t mean you should just up and quit your job without notice. No, that would be lunacy. What I mean is start freelancing while you have a full-time job. A study by the Academy of Management found your businesses is 33 percent less likely to fail if you launch it while you’re still employed.

So find your first client well before you quit your day job. Look on Flexjobs, Craigslist, Worknola or whatever, apply and (hopefully) get hired. Once you have built up some recurring work, test-drive freelancing by taking a day or a week off and working on freelance projects during that time. Pay attention to what you like or don’t like about it. Do you enjoy being at home and working? Do you find it easier to get things done in a shared workspace or a coffee shop? Maybe you’ll find you miss the structure and camaraderie of your office. Whatever you learn, take that knowledge and use it to decide whether or not freelancing is right for you. Before I took the plunge to full-time freelancer, I scheduled a whole vacation week during which I only worked on freelance projects. I loved it! And I loved that I knew I loved it.

2. Track your bare-bones expenses for a couple months on a spreadsheet.

I did this so I knew the bare minimum I needed to survive. I found out I can live comfortably on $24,000; I can scrape by while maybe feeling a little deprived on $18,000, and I can survive on $12,000, but just barely. Those numbers give you something to aim for as you build up your roster of clients.

3. Build up more freelance clients and income sources until you can easily meet your minimum expenses.

The great thing about getting clients is this: once you start, if you do a good job, your existing clients may give you more work or refer you to others. As work snowballs, you might find yourself with an additional part- or full-time job on your hands. Yes, this might mean long days, working on weekends and a lot of stress. Remind yourself it’s temporary, and that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel–self employment! A career with unlimited growth and income potential, flexibility and opportunities to work from home with your cats.

4. Start a website.

You should actually do this before you start freelancing. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Just let it be your digital placard in ye old Internet land. Feel free to optimize your website toward your business or just use it as a place to blog and share information about yourself. The great thing about blogging/creating websites is that it’s perfectly fine to figure it out as you go along. And once you start your website and optimize its SEO and hook it up to Google Analytics, you can learn not only about yourself, but also about the people who are taking in the stuff you’re creating. Take this blog, for example. I had no idea what its purpose would be when I created it, and it’s still a work in progress–but I can tell which posts are the most popular ones (that’s the microblading piece, by a landslide) and see the need they’re filling. Also, clients like it if you have a website. Why would they hire someone who’s a virtual blank space when they could hire someone they “know?” On the same note, max out your LinkedIn real estate, too, and get aggressive on social media.

5. Buy a house or refinance your mortgage (or both).

I actually did both of these things. I closed on my house in 2014 and refinanced (sweet, sweet 2.8 percent, baby) in 2016. The reason I refinanced wasn’t only because interest rates were good. It was because banks won’t even look at a self-employed person until they have two years’ of freelance income to present. So I knew I’d be locked out of the real estate market for a MINIMUM of two years.

6. Project your income for your first year and get Obamacare based on that income.

Yeah, you need to get on that Obamacare fast, because who knows what’s going to happen under this new administration? There’s some possibility that existing users may be grandfathered in, though. So figure out your projected income based on the work you’ve been doing for the clients you have. Err on the conservative side. Then pay for the year up front on a credit card, preferably one that offers cash back or air travel miles. Here’s to your health.

7. Save up a nice money cushion.

This should be easy because of all the freelance work you’re doing on top of your full-time job. As tempting as it may be, don’t treat yourself with your additional income. Put it in the bank where it can serve as a cushion during that precarious first year as a freelancer. I saved $10,000 before putting in my notice. Which is comforting, because I’ll be ready in case there’s a client who pays late or not at all, a pet who needs emergency surgery, etc. etc….

8. Go to the doctor, use sick days, and max out your cafeteria plan.

Get your health-related issues worked out while you have got a solid health insurance plan and paid sick days. Do any surgeries while you still have a cafeteria plan. I used paid vacation days and my company’s cafeteria plan to have PRK eye surgery– and I’m really glad I did. Neither of those luxuries would have been afforded to me if I was a freelancer.

9. Talk to other freelancers who’ve made the leap.

I found invaluable advice, support and encouragement from talking to other freelancers. In fact, Juliet Meeksgave me the advice in #6.

10. Quit your job and tell people why.

When you quit your job, people are going to be curious about your reasons for leaving. This is a prime opportunity to tell them you’re going freelance and hey, you’re available for work. Also, if there are cocktail parties, events, industry mixers, etc., that you usually opt out of, well, STOP. Go to that shit. Tell people you’re freelancing. SING IT TO THE WORLD. (Just like I’m doing now … cough, cough.)

As some of you know, I got my eyebrowsmicro-bladedin January 2016. Microblading is a semi-permanent tattooing technique during which an esthetician makes tiny, hairlike cuts in and around the eyebrows, then applies ink made of vegetable dye to the incisions. (I found it pretty painful.) The result is soft, feathery, natural results that give your brows a permanently on-fleek look, without requiring a daily investment of time and brow powder.

However, that’s not to say there’s no investment at all. The procedure costs around $300-$600 depending on where you live, and results last six months to two years. When I had microblading done at Beso Makeup, I was really skeptical about the whole semi-permanent thing. Like, is it really semi-permanent? You’re cutting into my skin and rubbing ink into those wounds. Would this fade naturally–or at all?

The answer is yes, my microbladed eyebrows did fade. It’s now almost a year since I had my touch-up appointment, and the tattoo is basically gone. In the photo below, the faintest smudge of brown is discernible over the arch of my left brow. It’s not visible except in bright, direct sunlight–my sister saw it outside and said, “Do you have something on your face?” I said, yes, a faded tattoo.

The impermanence could be a good thing or a bad thing for you, depending on how much you liked your end result. Personally, I’m a little disappointment my microblading didn’t last longer. While I loved the finished look, I don’t see myself shelling out more than $500 a year to maintain the results. I can get pretty much the same effect with brow mascara.

If microblading were cheaper, or if it lasted a couple years, or if I had very thin brows, I could see myself making this a regular part of my beauty routine. As it is, I’m glad I tried microblading, but probably won’t be getting it again soon.

If you’ve had microblading done, how long did your results last? Let me know in the comments.